Years of life lost in patients with a false-negative diagnosis of primary cutaneous melanoma

A false-negative diagnosis of cancer can lead to a delay in effective treatment and a poorer prognosis. A study among patients with cutaneous melanoma in Germany evaluated years of life lost after a false-negative diagnosis compared to a primarily correct diagnosis. From 1996 to 2015, 9063 patients were prospectively registered in the German Central Malignant Melanoma Registry and followed up until December 2023. A false-negative diagnosis was found in 206 patients (2.3%), with a median time to correct diagnosis of 24.0 months. The 10-year recurrence-free survival and melanoma-specific survival probabilities were 32.9% versus 76.2% (p<0.001) and 62.1 versus 85.0% (pxtagstartz0.001), respectively, for false-negative versus correct diagnoses. On average, each person with an initial false-negative diagnosis lost 8.2 years of life compared to individuals with a correct diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma. The authors conclude that this high number of years of life lost raises the question whether similar results also apply to other types of cancer.